News Roundup 12 December 2022
Dec 12, 2022 • 5 min Read
Youth sexual abuse survivor group hits ‘spurious’ DepEd abuse hotline | PHILSTAR.COM – A youth group of gender equality advocates and victim-survivors of sexual abuse in schools hit the Department of Education’s helpline for survivors of harassment, calling it “a scam for the ages with the intent of deceiving the public” after it ran tests on the hotline which ultimately could not be reached. In a statement sent to the media Monday morning, the group called Enough is Enough said it attempted to reach out to the landline and mobile numbers provided by the DepEd several times on three different occasions the past week on December 4, 6 and 9. On all attempts, the group said it failed to get in touch with any of the department’s supposed “Child Protection Specialists.” To recall, the DepEd weeks ago launched the “Learner Rights and Protection Office” website and national hotline as a culmination event in celebration of National Children’s Month in an effort to “further strengthen its efforts to protect learners from abuse, violence, and exploitation.” It claimed this was its initiative amid mounting sexual abuse cases in schools since the re-opening of face-to-face classes. “We are extremely disappointed and troubled after being led to believe that Vice President and concurrent DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte was on top of the problem but is clearly more focused on painting a rosy picture of what is clearly a deceitful and ineffective leadership to combat sexual abuse,” said Sophia Beatriz Reyes, the group’s lead convenor. The group called the hotline a smokescreen meant to show that concrete steps are being undertaken to address the problem of sexual abuse in educational institutions. It also claimed that since engaging and submitting their recommendations to the DepEd’s Child Protection Unit last October 29, the department has failed to act upon them. Pre-pandemic, students of a number of high schools and universities demanded their schools to investigate allegations of sexual abuse as the hashtag #DoBetter went viral on social media. Just days into the re-opening of on-site classes, DepEd said it was investigating six Cavite teachers for allegations of sexually harassing their own students. Most recently, allegations of sexual, verbal and emotional abuse at the Philippine High School for the Arts, a government-run boarding school came to light in a VICE World News report which claimed that a “culture of sexual abuse thrived for decades” at the state-owned institution. This prompted a formal investigation by the Senate panel on women, children, family relations, and gender equality. Enough is Enough was formed at the height of the uproar after sexual abuse at the Bacoor National High School became public and pushed for predators and enablers to be charged with criminal and administrative cases and have their professional licenses revoked. It also called for the establishment of a national registry of offenders where sexual abusers are blacklisted and barred from employment that involves vulnerable sections of the population. “The DepEd must get their act together if it wishes to fulfill its mandate in keeping schools a safe space and protecting learners. Our rights are being further compromised with their public stunts and gimmickry, both students and parents alike demand concrete actions to our grievances,” Reyes said.
8 die in Tanay flash flood | PHILSTAR.COM – Eight persons died after a jeepney loaded with 25 people was swept away by a flash flood in Tanay, Rizal on Saturday night. Authorities have yet to identify the fatalities, which included seven senior citizens and a five-year-old child, according to a report released by the Tanay disaster risk reduction and management office. The victims were reportedly on their way home from the town proper when they figured in the accident. Quoting a witness, municipal disaster office chief Norbeto Matienzo Jr. said the jeepeney was reportedly crossing a river in Barangay Sta. Ines when it developed engine trouble and got stuck. The tide suddenly rose and water came rushing toward the jeepney, causing the vehicle to roll to its side before it was swept away, Matienzo said. Authorities expressed belief the victims went to the town proper to collect the ayuda distributed by the municipal government.
Think tank: LGUs not yet ready for devolution | INQUIRER.NET – A local governance think-tank urges the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to heed the request of the local government units (LGUs) to move the implementation of full devolution to 2027, instead of 2024, the target period set by his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte. Full devolution, or the transfer of key national government functions to the LGUs, is in compliance with the Mandanas-Garcia ruling of the Supreme Court, which gave bigger budgets to provinces and cities, but at the same time stipulated that the task of implementing programs and projects otherwise done by agencies of the national government be transferred to mayors and governors. The high tribunal in 2018 granted the petitions of Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas and the late former Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia Jr. that the LGUs’ internal revenue allotment or IRA (now called the national tax allotment or NTA) should come from 40 percent of “all” national taxes — not only from the collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue which had been appropriated in the past but also from the Bureau of Customs’ collections of import duties and other taxes. Under the 2023 budget, for instance, ₱820.3-billion in NTA is allocated together with ₱28.9 billion under the Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) to empower LGUs in delivering the devolved services. In 2021, this amounted to only ₱695.49 billion. Duterte signed Executive Order No. 138 in June 2021 directing the national government to “devolve” or transfer to LGUs the implementation of formerly national government functions and give LGUs a three-year transition period until 2024. The order cited Section 17 of Republic Act No. 7160, or the Local Government Code of 1991, allowing the transfer to LGUs of local infrastructure (for education, irrigation, and trade), agriculture and natural resource management, environmental services, telecommunications, peace and order, social welfare, transportation, tourism, and housing services functions. However, the Local Government Development Institute (LGDI) agreed with LGUs and other experts on the need to extend the transition period under EO 138 to six years, or to 2027, for a more gradual transfer of programs.
